The present invention relates to a rigid shell extricator.
When rescuing trauma victims, and particularly victims of road accidents, the need arises to prevent lesions secondary to the traumas and due to posture and rescue, transportation, and diagnosing stresses.
The immobilisation of trauma victims is one of the very few and simple interventions which, if effected in a timely and proper manner, can determine the destiny of the persons involved and set the time and social costs of their hospitalisation and recovery.
The occipital area and the pelvis, together with the entire development of the spine, are the anatomical parts that most need an effective immobilisation, obtained by laying the traumatised body onto specifically studied and constructed supports, which have long been in use; such supports are aptly called extricators.
Extricators are based on the principle of immobilising the articulated masses of the spine to a rigid body in order to eliminate elastic dissipation in the inter-vertebral articulations and, consequently, to reduce to nil the energy applied on any lesion points.
The rigidity of the extricators involves at least their longitudinal development, correspondingly to the longitudinal development of the trauma victim""s spine.
In other words, by immobilising the traumatised person one obtains a substantial uniformity of reaction of that person""s entire body to the stresses deriving from the most disparate sources of motion which may be encountered during the rescue operations.
The immobilization also prevents the traumatized person, due to loss of lucidity, from involuntarily making movements which might further damage his/her health. The extractors, which may be variedly shaped, can substantially be sub-divided in two types: those including a single, fully rigid, bed, and called shell extricators, or those presenting a structure provided with vertical rigidity and horizontal flexibility and including a plurality of rigid elements set mutually side-by-side and parallel.
All extricator models currently in use present the drawback that the belts with which they are provided are fastened only at an extremity to the related extricator, letting the other one dangle freely; this fact presents the real possibility not only of constituting a hindrance to the motion of the extricator, but also the more serious possibility of constituting a hazard: consider the eventuality of tripping in the freely dangling belts.
In some models of extricators, the attempt to overcome this dangerous drawback was made by providing the aforementioned belts with quick fastening mechanisms and the related extricator with attachments rationally conceived for the actual rapid fastening of said belts.
Such a solution provides for the belts to be normally detached from the related extricator and to be fastened thereon only at the time the equipment is actually used.
It is obvious that such a solution solves only partially the problem of the belts being free to dangle, since the fact that they are separate from the extricator may lead to their loss or, in any case, their unavailability for immediate use just when, due to the seriousness of certain situations, the utmost rapidity of intervention is necessary.
Another drawback present by many of the extricators currently used is that they are not constructed according to the most recent knowledge acquired through bio-mechanical research studies.
From U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,583 a device for transporting disabled or sick persons it is known comprising a stretcher mattress attachable to a stretcher frame or a transport vehicle.
The stretcher frame comprises a plurality of belt take-up mechanisms for attaching the stretcher mattress to the frame.
The mattress has belts merging into a third belt inside the mattress for connecting to the stretcher frame.
The mattress has also a housing for a take-up device located in a recess of the mattress. Other take-up devices are associated to the frame.
Notwithstanding the presence of many take-up devices, said document clearly discloses that the belts are freely pending out of the mattress and only a part of them can be housed inside the mattress: a portion of the belt must remain outside the mattress or outside the frame to let the operator to pull out the belt.
The aim of the present invention is to eliminate the aforesaid drawbacks and to make available a rigid extricator provided with holding belts that are completely inserted thereinto and can easily and rapidly be extracted therefrom.
In particular, a rigid shell extricator, of the type with rigid platform, constituting the subject of the present invention is characterised in that one or more niches are obtained in the thickness of the aforesaid extricator; said niches have their open side obtained on a lower surface of the extricator opposite to an upper surface thereof, destined to support a traumatised person; the niches are positioned in correspondence with the points of the extricator destined to support the occipital area and torso of a traumatised person; the niches are provided with lids.